This invention pertains to a method and apparatus for sorting and handling redeemable food containers, such as beverage containers. More particularly, it relates to such a method and apparatus which, among other things, is designed to read coded information on the outside of such a container to determine whether the container is properly redeemable, to separate redeemable and nonredeemable containers, and to produce a management accounting record relating to redemption refunding.
For the purpose of illustration herein, a preferred embodiment of the apparatus is described in conjunction with the redemption-handling of conventional metallic beverage containers (typically aluminum and steel). However, and as will become apparent, the apparatus proposed herein can readily be employed to handle other kinds of redeemable food containers, such as plastic and glass beverage containers. Accordingly, the term "container", as employed in the claims, refers to all such
In recent years, several states have adopted mandatory deposit statutes under which food containers, such as carbonated beverage containers (aluminum and steel cans, plastic and glass bottles), are required to "carry" a monetary deposit, that is intended to promote return and recycling of a container after use. A result which has accompanied the general success of such legislation respecting recycling is that the usual redemption market outlets have had to devote considerable space and employee time to redemption-handling.
In light of the enormous handling task brought about by such deposit statutes, much consideration has been given by me to the successful development of some sort of automatic redemption system which is capable of offering high-speed, economical, accurate return-handling. Among the important considerations that relate to such a system are (1) its ability to determine that a returned container is properly redeemable (authorized) in the particular state where the system is used, and (2) its ability to identify properly returned containers according to their different sources of origin. Ideally, such a system will additionally have the ability to reject from (further) automated redemption-processing any container which either is so badly deformed or marred that its coded indicia cannot be read, or one that is still completely or partially filled.
A general object of the present invention, therefore, is to provide an automatic container-redemption method and apparatus which offers all of the features and advantages set forth above as being important to the successful implementation of such a system.
More particularly, an object of the invention is to provide such a method and apparatus which will function speedily and reliably to receive, identify and separate redeemable and nonredeemable containers of the type generally mentioned above.
A related object is to offer such a method and apparatus whereby accurate redemption-accounting, or management, records are produced relative to those containers which are found to be properly redeemable.
In general terms, the apparatus of the present invention, as disclosed particularly below, examines a received container (can, as illustrated herein) for two principal characteristics, each of which bears on the question of whether the apparatus will accept or reject the container. These two factors are weight, and carriage or readability, of externally exposed coded information (indicia) that indicates authorized redeemability for a particular container. In addition, the apparatus of the invention examines a received container for the legibility of other externally readable coded indicia which contain information regarding product brand and distribution source. This latter-mentioned information is important, as will be explained, for various accounting purposes, and for complete, automated redemption-handling.
As most people are aware, substantially every consumer product on the U.S. market bears what is known as a Universal Product Code (UPC) which, among other things, uniquely identifies the product, its producer, and usually its local or regional distribution source. It is from the UPC that the apparatus of the present invention determines the accounting-important information mentioned above. To date, in a situation where only several states have adopted deposit legislation, efforts to encourage that the UPC further contain, on a state-by-state basis, information regarding authorized redemption in a particular state, have failed. Clearly the UPC can be augmented to contain this kind of information, and probably will be so augmented as deposit-type legislation appears in more states.
In order to deal with the problem of authorized-state redeemability, and after I conceived the invention which is disclosed herein, another inventor and I conceived and developed a code structure, and a method and apparatus for reading such a structure, which can be used conveniently in the absence of such UPC augmentation. According to those later inventions, an end of a container is suitably marked with a pattern of coded indicia that relates particularly to authorized state redeemability. These later developments are disclosed in copending U.S. patent applications which are identified as follows: Ser. No. 353,365, filed by Alfred A. Hampson and Thomas B. Hutchins (deceased) on Mar. 1, 1982 for "Redeemable Container With End Closure Redemption Code", and U.S. Pat. No. 4,493,989, to Alfred A. Hampson and Thomas B. Hutchins (deceased) on for "Container End Code Redemption Scanning". Reference is hereby made to the disclosures in that application and patent for a detailed understanding of the "end-code" inventions just mentioned.
The preferred embodiment of the apparatus described herein (for handling metallic beverage containers) takes into account the features disclosed in these two prior-filed applications. In addition, the apparatus of the invention, as will be seen shortly, is constructed to have, without any modification whatsoever, the capability of acquiring information from an augmented UPC, such as the one discussed above. In other words, the apparatus of the invention is not limited to the handling of containers which are encoded and processed in accordance with the two above-mentioned prior-filed applications.
According to the preferred embodiment of the apparatus of the invention, which has been discussed generally above, the same includes an intake station where customers can deliver, in bulk, a collection of beverage cans for redemption. Downstream at any suitable location from the intake station is a weighing station which receives cans seriatim, and weighs them to determine that they do not exceed the weight of a conventional steel beverage container. A can weighed and found to exceed this weight is ejected from the system in order to insure that partially or completely filled containers are removed from (further) automated handling.
Adjacent the weighing station, cans are carried endo along a conveyor, and while so conveyed are rotated rapidly about their axes. Positioned adjacent this conveyor are plural laser scanners which "look" at the sides and opposite ends of cans to derive, as will be detailed below, information relating to authorized redeemability, product brands and distribution sources. Redundant end readers are provided for handling those cans which are specially encoded according to the two prior patent applications mentioned above. Redundancy, of course, is necessary to accommodate different cans which may travel through the apparatus with different ends leading their travel.
Supervising and monitoring the operations of the weighing station, of the laser scanners and of other equipment, is a programmed digital computer which determines the processing of each can delivered to the system. Deformed defaced, or misprinted (nonreadable) and overweight cans are returned to the customer without redemption, and are ejected from the apparatus. Properly redeemable cans are retained by the apparatus for further processing, such as crushing, and with respect to these cans, summary redemption records are generated by the computer for two principal purposes. One is to provide the usual store, where the redemption apparatus is used, with management accounting data relating to how many cans, of which brand, and from which producer, have been received, so that the store can collect the various deposits which it paid at the time of receiving the products. Another is to provide the redeeming customer with an accounting for what he or she has delivered to the apparatus, and to enable him or her to get an appropriate return on deposits paid.
These and other objects and advantages which are attained by the invention will become more fully apparent as the description which now follows is read in conjunction with the accompanying drawing.